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LXer Weekly Roundup for 29-Jun-2008

In this week's Roundup we have a OLPC XO-1 spotted in a red enclosure and a possibly faked demo of XP an a OLPC as well, The MPAA says "We Don't Need No Stinking Evidence!", Linux developers petition for open Linux kernel drivers, No Vista Inside for Intel, Dear Microsoft, thanks for the help, Linux, Battle of the Titans - Mandriva vs openSUSE: The Rematch and Ten sticking points for new Ubuntu users.

In this week's Roundup we have a OLPC XO-1 spotted in a red enclosure and a possibly faked demo of XP an a OLPC as well, The MPAA says "We Don't Need No Stinking Evidence!", Linux developers petition for open Linux kernel drivers, No Vista Inside for Intel, Dear Microsoft, thanks for the help, Linux, Battle of the Titans - Mandriva vs openSUSE: The Rematch and Ten sticking points for new Ubuntu users.

Did Microsoft Fake XP on XO Press Media?!: Do you remember all the hoopla around the XP on the XO announcement in May? Where Microsoft gave us a press release, blog post, and a video, all announcing Windows XP for the XO laptop. Well, thanks to the sleuths on OLPC News Forum it looks like Microsoft may have faked two of the three. First, let's look at the official press release photograph showing XP on the XO. Now, take a very, very close look. Do you see what teapot sees?

XO-1 spotted in red enclosure: At first I thought that I was looking at a late April's fool joke. Then I was reminded of other potentially faked material involving Microsoft and OLPC. But the more often I look at the photos that Gizmodo has posted the more I believe that I'm really looking at a limited edition XO-1 that comes in red..

Morals, Force and Freedomware: "I would rather live in a free market where proprietary software has 90% market share than in a state where Free Software is enforced by law."

MPAA: We Don't Need No Stinking Evidence!: You get some positive news, such as the Amicus brief filed by the EFF and others in the Jammie Thomas case, which could net her a new trial. But also on Friday, the MPAA filed its own brief, one which basically says it feels evidence isn't necessary in the case of one of its copyright infringement trials.

Installing applications on Linux: In my last article I talked about changing Linux so that software updates come from your ISPs local Linux mirror, which may not count towards your monthly download allowance. In this article I'll chat about how to install applications.

Compare Ekiga and Skype on Ubuntu 8.04: What do you have to lose by using Internet Phone with Ekiga Softphone. This is easy to set up and can save you a lot of money by using it. This is especially a useful tool if you have broadband access to the Internet. Here is a step-by-step approach to setting up your phone. Also provided is a link to compare Skype with Ekiga.

Linux developers petition for open Linux kernel drivers: Insisting that they have "repeatedly found them to be detrimental to Linux users, businesses, and the greater Linux ecosystem," today the Linux kernel community has started petitioning for open-source modules and open-source drivers for the Linux kernel. Such modules negate the openness, stability, flexibility, and maintainability of the Linux development model and shut their users off from the expertise of the Linux community. The Linux Foundation, led by Jim Zemlin, has issued a statement in favor of the Linux kernel developers' position. It's unclear why the kernel developers decided to speak out now, though the Linux Foundation indicates that the developers have been subjected to a steady barrage of questions on the topic for years. Apparently, they finally got sick of it.

HP Open Sources Unix File System for Linux: HP is opening up its Tru64 Advanced File System (AdvFS) to the open source Linux community in a bid to help further Linux file system innovation. The AdvFS file system, which has its roots in Digital Equipment Corporation's Digital Unix, is used in mission-critical deployments by HP customers. But HP, which gained AdvFS through a series of acquisitions, has its own flavor of Unix, HP-UX, with its own file system.

Funny Side of Linux: In all seriousness of being a linux user we sometimes forget the fun side of it all, here is an attempt to capture some of it.

NVIDIA Denies Opening Up Its Driver: Yesterday we reported on the Linux Foundation's message they have issued on the behalf of more than 140 kernel developers: Binary-only kernel modules are harmful and undesirable. While no vendor was singled out in this message, the biggest hardware manufacturer that has yet to provide any real level of open-source support is NVIDIA Corporation.

Battle of the Titans - Mandriva vs openSUSE: The Rematch: Last fall when the two mega-distros openSUSE and Mandriva both hit the mirrors, it was difficult to decide which I liked better. In an attempt to narrow it down, I ran some light-hearted tests and found Mandriva won out in a side-by-side comparison. But things change rapidly in the Linux world and I wondered how a competition of the newest releases would come out. Mandriva 2008.1 was released this past April and openSUSE 11.0 was released just last week.

Dear Microsoft, thanks for the help, Linux: You gotta love it. Microsoft has decided that it will ho ahead and kill off easy access to XP on June 30th. On behalf of desktop Linux users everywhere, and our first cousins, the Mac fans, thanks. You've given us the best shot we'll ever have of taking the desktop. But it gets even better! Microsoft has also announced that it will be releasing Windows 7 on January 2010. They'll blow that ship date. Microsoft has never set a shipping date it could meet. But, who in their right mind would now buy Vista?

No Vista Inside for Intel: It looks like Microsoft may have shot itself in both feet by announcing Windows 7 so soon, as 'Wintel' decides not to bother upgrading to Vista because there is, and I quote here: "no compelling case." ROFL. Perhaps they should skip Windows 7 as well and just opt for 80,000 Linux installs?

Nvidia says no to free drivers, I say no to Nvidia: "Bottom line is. Nvidia, you say no to freedomware drivers, I say no to you. How about that? Perhaps with enough people in the market acting on that same sentiment will make the value of NVIDIA's precious "intellectual property" suddenly seem trivial."

Portrait: Michelle Bisson balances consulting with Joomla! volunteerism: "I've always done the things that nobody else wanted to do," Michelle Bisson says, explaining how she became the only woman on the core team for the Joomla! content management system. "I say, 'Oh, that needs to be done? Okay, I'll do what I can.'" This outlook is responsible not only for making her one of the founders of the Joomla! project, but also for giving her an unusual degree of insight into how non-developers can contribute to free and open source software projects (FOSS).

OpenSUSE 11: nice kid, bad custodians: Sometime back, I had a couple of encounters with OpenSUSE, the so-called community distribution which was started by Novell in 2005. Neither of them was exactly salutary. For example, in October last year, version 10.3 was released and my efforts to see what it was all about were frustrated to a large extent by the downloads themselves.

Ten sticking points for new Ubuntu users:
With Ubuntu, Canonical has had notable success in convincing people to switch from other platforms, but potential Ubuntu users are still running into trouble in several areas. Having spent some time on Canonical's forums, I've identified 10 points that seem to be common sticking points for new users -- that is, problems that have the potential to prevent a new user from adopting Ubuntu in the long term. These problems span the entire Ubuntu experience, but they all have two things in common: they are all serious enough to evoke the dreaded "I tried Linux but it didn't work" excuse, and they are all solvable.

Life after Windows, 3 1/2 months: Deleted the Windows partition: On March 11 I decided to move away from using Microsoft Windows XP as my primary work operating system on my IBM-supplied Thinkpad T60p. I've offered progress reports on how I was getting along. Through all of this I kept a reduced Windows XP partition on the machine "just in case."